Cocaine Takes Over Kampala

Kampala is fast being inundated by illicit drugs. Cocaine and Heroin which are highly addictive narcotic drugs have become normal business for the dealers, recruits and the addicts.

Shakira demonstrates how to smoke cocaine

Its level of circulation in Kampala has hit alarming levels recently prompting the Police to do an operation in Kisenyi in down town Kampala a notorious hub of drug trade.

According to Detective Superintendent of police Tinka Zarugaba who is also the deputy in charge at the Directorate of Narcotics police department at Kibuli CIID headquarters, the department carried out a massive raid in the Kisenyi area after a tipoff and they arrested many buyers and sellers of drugs.

Among those arrested was Shakira Mutesi, 22 and a Nigerian by the name Stanley Emeka.

He also notified us that the operation managed to nab two drug lords Rose Bakihwahwenki and Josephine.

He said that police is committed to continue these raids until the city is free of drugs.

On arrest, one of the suspects, Shakira Mutesi who claims she got hooked on drugs at the age of 7, begged the police to help her locate her parents and this would help her quit the drugs.

An emaciated and visibly disoriented Shakira told police that while still in primary seven in Kisoro district, she was taking simple marijuana which had not affected her very much until she was introduced to hardcore narcotics which worsened her state.

She narrated to police that while in senior two at Lutembe Senior Secondary School in Entebbe where the parents brought her with the hope that they had delivered her from marihuana in Kisoro, she got herself a boyfriend only identified as John who was not pleased by her size.

In her own words she says, “I was very fat at the time and he insisted that he was going to help me get medicine which would help me reduce on my huge weight.”

Part of the equipment they use to smoke cocaine

She went further to say, “My boyfriend started giving me drugs which didn’t know until I got to know that it was Cocaine and Heroin. I became an addict and if I do not take these drugs, I experience convulsions, muscle pain, passing out watery stool, fainting fever, chill and vomiting, I overcome these situations only after smoking it.”

Mutesi Shakira went on to tell the police that on the advice of her boyfriend John, she abandoned school, started cohabiting with him and out of this came a pregnancy that gave her a baby girl.

The supply of drugs was uninterrupted meanwhile until his boyfriend died due to drug abuse related causes in Mulago hospital in February 2015.

Shakira said that after her boyfriend’s death it became difficult for her to get money to finance the addiction.

She told police that her and many other young girls get money from prostitution at night and during the day they buy drugs from Kisenyi from loaded Rwandan drug lords who vends them in the area.

She said a pack of white or brown cocaine or heroin ranges from Ushs 5000 to 10000/=.

Part of the racket that smokes Cocaine

She noted that it is very difficult to know the drug dealers unless you’re a known customer.

“They are filthy rich and very deadly to anyone who gives out information on where they operate from.They operate undercover and when you are a customer you only use sign language to get and pay for your package,” she added.

Zarugaba the Police Officer in charge of the operation said that Mutesi is currently on the third stage of drug addiction where she cannot survive without taking drugs.

“After consuming the drugs both in pure and impure form, it has affected her brain and it cannot operate without having drugs,” he said.

He further said that while in detention some of the drug addicts fainted after spending time without smoking and that some are admitted at Mulago hospital.

Tinka Zarugaba lamented that drug abuse in Uganda is on the rise and added that currently the drugs pass through the country’s porous borders and at Entebbe International Airport.

He went on to say that Uganda has now transformed from being a transit route to a consuming country because of the weak laws on drug trafficking.

He explained that drug traffickers all over use Uganda as a transit route because of her weak laws on drug trafficking and incase they are arrested, they get a small punishment which they serve in short period and walk free.

He said that Kisenyi is now known for the notorious taking of hard narcotic drugs which include the expensive Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine which is made by mixing Iodine and Ephedrine.

He further said that these drugs originate from South American countries of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

According to the Anti narcotics boss, the main challenges in fighting drug abuse in the country is poor perception of the dangers of drug abuse.

He said that society takes drug abuse by some people like children as poor upbringing by parents, plus the shielding of drug abusers mostly prominent people like some musicians who when arrested, society is hoodwinked into thinking that they are being targeted.

Tinka assured the public that detectives are also closely watching incidents at Makerere University where some students were caught selling cookies laced with marijuana.

He said that on arrest the students confessed that it was old fashioned for them to smoke Marijuana in the open, so they devised other means of taking drugs disguised as taking cookies.

“You may find that these students who are leading these violent strikes come after taking these cookies because these students are behaving like primary school pupils and our undercover detectives are on the ground to ascertain what is going on,” Tinka quipped.